The Azores, Portugal

I spent a long summer in the Azores this year 2005 from July to October working on the boat Xacara. We started in July with a photography team from BBC filming for the documentary series Planet Earth. The rest of the time we fished!

En lang begivenhedsfuld sommer på Faial, Azorerne, er nu ovre, og jeg er på vej hjem. Den har været fantastisk og fyldt med oplevelser, som jeg vil huske på, når jeg sidder gråhåret og gammel i min gyngestol. Først og fremmest har den været fyldt med fisk, sol, hav, fest og glade dage. Nu har jeg næsen vendt hjem mod Danmark, hvor det skal blive skønt at se de gode gamle venner, som jeg har savnet forfærdeligt, igen.

The summer aboard the sport fishing boat Xácara in the Azores has come to an end

October 4th was the last fishing day, and is seems the season stopped just in time before all the nasty weather hit the island. Yesterday it was raining like I have never seen before.

We have caught 2 granders (fish over 1000 lbs) and seen a handful of seriously huge fish that either didn't bite, pulled the hooks or broke the line. One was estimated to easily make the 80 lb World Record, but it got away as they sometimes do...
Being quite a big game fishing novice I was almost frightened by the size of some of those fish! One we saw behind the lures was more than 3 feet wide and about 5 meters long would never had gone through the tuna door if we had managed to catch it. They are truly impressive creatures and some of the most amazing fish in the ocean.

Today it was raining and we caught 2 blue marlin.

We have a day off which we spend in Cedros making a big mess on the dining table playing with the last week's pictures and video.

Status for the season so far is that we've caught 20 blue marlin of the almost 40 we've seen + a bunch of whites, ½ a dead octopus, 3 dead scabbard fish, and 2 dorados of which we ate the one for supper last night.

We didn't catch anything today for the first time since I don't know when. A very nice big blue over 800 lbs gave it a go but jumped off after a short while. But we had super nice (Danish) people on the boat and the weather was nice, so we are happy anyway.

On the last 3-day charter we caught 3 blues - 650, 550 and 175 lbs and pulled the hooks on two even bigger ones!

Today we didn't have any clients, but we went out fishing looking for a fish for me to catch! Ian had very kindly decided to give me a day of fishing :-) Ian and I spent the rainy morning in the marina's ice cold water cleaning the bottom of Xácara and just after lunch time we trolled towards Condor Bank.

Knowing my regular fishing luck I kept telling myself that we would never see any sign of a fish. BUT WE DID! Just after 3 a blue marlin came and looked at the lures for a very very long time before it finally decided to eat one. And then I caught my first blue marlin.

This was the first time I fought a blue marlin myself, and it was a super cool feeling to be in the chair connected to the fish and feel how strong it was. It did a lot of jumping around, but after half an hour it was tired (I was tired too!) and came to the boat calmly to let us claim it a caught fish and have a look at it before it pulled off. Ian just managed to reach out and tag it before it swam away. The two experts estimated it 550 lbs. It looks very small on this photo taken with a wide angle lens.

We are back at sea fishing again. Yesterday we had a super dock party with our new friends, so we went out today with a nice hangover from lots of Coronas. It was pretty windy and we didn't have too much fishing action, so here are some pictures from last night for everyone's widespread amusement and as a tribute to the fantastic crew of the Battered Bull!

Fishing has been pretty awesome the last days. Here's one of the 5 blues we have caught in September so far. This one is a 350 lb blue marlin that Toni released today.

It's blowing a pelican and we are staying in the marina again today, and I was almost getting seasick just by sitting on the boat in the harbor. We've had time to take some stills out of the underwater video camera with really interesting results.

On the 1st of September we caught a pretty little 300 lb blue.

Today the weather is horrible and we are staying on land.

I'm staying in bed with my new friend Thomas the grey cat who has invaded our home and eaten all our canned tuna.

The good fishing continues in Condor Bank. Today Britta showed the boys how to fight a fish when she caught a nice 900 pounder in ½ hour. Yesterday was the guys' day. We caught 2 really nice fish - one was 650 lbs and the other was an 850 pounder that was released after only 10 minutes. The fish went crazy and dragged Jeff all over the cockpit and we were happy to get rid of her in while she was still in a good condition.

We've have some awesome fishing the last couple of days. And some awful bad luck as well. On our first day after the days off we released two blues before lunch. One was a tiny baby 300 pounder, and the other was a decent 600 pounder. After that we expected to catch more fish, but mais nada. Brasilia lost a nice fish in Azores Bank, so the blues seem to be coming back to the Azores! And we like that.... Below is the baby 300 lb'er caught on Roddy's Andromeda.

Today was another day in Condor. It was slow until 3 pm when a huge blue finally decided to eat a lure after it had been swimming behind it and next to it forever. We are fishing 80 lb test. After 4 hours the fish was still strong as if it had never been hooked. We had it on the leader and could claim it a caught fish and estimate the size. No doubt it was a huge fish and we had the gaffs ready on the saloon floor. After 6 hours it was getting dark and the angler finally had to give up. The fish was showing no signs of getting tired at all. I had my 2 minutes of fame when I fought it in the chair! After that Jeff took over in a last attempt to get the fish to the boat. The line snapped with 60 pounds of drag on it and with such a bang that I thought the rod had broken. Gone was the fish and it's still swimming around out there probably unaffected by the whole thing. I had never thought that any fish in the world would ever grow to that size, but apparently some of them do! Jeff said it was the biggest fish he has ever had on the leader and we reckon that the fish we lost today certainly was the new 80 lb world record... So today was both good and bad. Good because we caught the 2nd grander in a week and it's still alive and bad because we never got the opportunity to stick the gaffs in it.

Today was a nice day of fishing on Condor Bank. In the morning Jim caught a pretty white marlin that jumped around for a long time before we released it. The lure was one of the nice little Roddy Hays lure that we have had great succes with this year.

Den stakkels fisk trak os 3 mil væk fra banken, døde og sank som en sten på 2 km vand til linen knækkede med et ordentligt smeld under presset. Trist.

On the way home we almost drove over another blue marlin on the surface so there are certainly fish around and some of them are seriously BIG!Yesterday we fished on Azores Bank and hooked another very nice 800+ lb blue, but unfortunately we pulled the hooks after a short fight and loads of jumps.

Today we caught the biggest fish I've ever seen caught. We were fishing on Condor Bank with 3 Swedish guys and hooked a massive fish just before lunch time. The water was so calm and clear that we could see the fish far down under the boat. When it started to come up it just grew bigger and bigger and when we had it alongside the boat Ian and Jeff didn't hesitate to call it a grander (a 1000 pound fish). She was still in good shape after a relatively short fight and we tagged and released her. Seeing her swimming away healthy and blue was the best feeling ever!

Today was a very special day. I caught my first marlin AND it was bigger than my sister's (sorry Astrid) and I no longer have to be embarrassed that my little sister have caught a marlin and I haven't! BIG thanks to Kong from Holland for kindly letting me catch his fish and enable me to join the club of real anglers catching real fish.

Fireworks in the marina at the last evening of the Semana do Mar festival. Tonight I said goodbye to my sister and tomorrow my mother is arriving to spend a week here.

For the moment we are fishing with our good friend Stuart. Yesterday he managed to hook and catch his own white marlin doing bait & switch, and today he thought is was my sister's turn to catch one. And so she did! I was very proud to see my sister catch her first real fish and judging from her smile she enjoyed it very much as well. To make the story even better my sister has now caught a marlin and I haven't! Astrid was very grateful to Stuart for letting her have fun with a fish. She now wants to give up her studies in Denmark and go big game fishing full time...

My dear little sister Astid is visiting me in Faial for 2 weeks and today we went around the island in nice weather. I was ambitious and wanted to climb the volcano Capelinhos on the West side if the island. It's only 50 years old. Despite the LOOONG steep walk to the top it was a great experience to see the view from the top and the crack there where hot steam is escaping from the volcano. The next few days my sister will be going fishing with us on Xacara.

The BBC charter is now over and we have started concentration on the actual goal of this season: Catching fish! Jeff Thomas has arrived from Madeira and we are ready to rock and roll.

Today was one of the rare days off and after spending the last 30 days at sea I went whale watching with Hortacetaceos for a change. It was a very good trip with very professional crew that managed to find us sperm whales, bottlenose-, common-, and Risso's dolphins, and a shark to see.

Today was a nice day. We had a barbecue in the marina in the evening and it was a very nice night. Here's Pico in the sunset.

Doug and Penny chasing birds, dolphins, and fish every day in the little skiff with the electric engine.

Today we went south of Pico and saw a bunch of sperm whales.

Cameraman Doug Anderson's hard and determined work being sabotaged by a pink balloon...

We have had some pretty nice bird and dolphin action South of Pico for the last couple of days. This morning was beautiful and calm and we saw loads of dolphins with babies feeding on schools of mackerel. Tonight we are going out on a night photo shoot to see what our lights can attract.

En fantastisk morgen med helt stille vejr og skyfri himmel. Syd for Pico fandt vi en kæmpeflok fugle, der sammen med en flok blandede delfiner gjorde enden på en stime små makreller. Delfinerne, var almindelige delfiner med små babyer. Det var fedt at svømme rundt på 2 km vand omgivet af fløjtende delfiner.

De sidste par dage har været ret interessante. Forleden filmede vi delfiner, der spiste løs af ungerne af en dybhavsfisk, som ikke har været filmet før, og fotograferne var meget begejstrede og ville ha' mer', men det fik de ikke. Dagen efter var vi tidligt ude for at se, om orgiet ville gentage sig, men det gjorde det desværre ikke, og det var en ret kedelig dag, der kun blev reddet af en kaskelotmor med en ultralille (ca. 3-4 meter) babykaskelot ved sin side.
Om aftenen snorkelde jeg med to lokale hvalfolk, der forsøgte at lære mig portugisiske bandeord. Det var ved et sted kaldet Castelo Branco, og vi så en kæmpestime sardiner. Det bedste af det hele var, at jeg for første gang siden min øreoperation kunne trykudligne og dykke langt ned uden at springe trommehinderne.

Nu har vi "filmet" med BBC i 4 dage. Samlet har vi nok fået 10 minutters video i kassen, men det har været ret interessant alligevel.
I går fandt vi en flok kaskelotter nord for øen. Det var en flok mødre med babyer og teenagere, og de lå og legede og rullede rundt med hoveder og haler over vandet. Det lykkedes at få en kameramand i vandet, og han kom helt tæt på efter at have svømmet ca. 100 meter.
Pludselig opstod panik blandt kaskelotterne, da en flok grindehvaler dukkede op. Som de gode mødre kaskelotter er, klumpede de sig sammen med babyerne inderst for at beskytte deres børn. Det var ret fantastisk, for de brugte vores båd til at gemme sig bag og var på et tidspunkt ikke mere end omkring 5 meter væk. Grindehvalerne holdt sig et stykke væk.

Jeg har aldrig været så tæt på en hval før, men det var temmelig fedt.

Today was the first day with the BBC. We were able to find some sleepy pilotwhales in the early morning and later we came across a few spermwhales and a group of mantarays, so quite a good day.
Here is Intuition II in the sunset in Horta Marina.

Første dag med BBC forløb glimrende. De har proppet båden fuld af kameraudstyr og dykkerflasker, så den er lige ved at synke. Hvis man solgte alt deres fotogrej, kunne man købe sig en fed Strandvejsvilla og en Ferrari...
Fra morgenstunden fandt vi en flok sovende grindehvaler med babyer, senere på dagen forfulgte vi en gruppe kaskelotter, og på vejen hjem var vi lige ved at sejle en gruppe mantarokker ned.

29. juni

Vores første charter i år er et filmhold fra BBC, der skal filme stort set alt, hvad vi nu kan opdrive af levende væsener i havet til en naturdokumentarfilm. De er netop ankommet, og den 30 dage lange charter starter 1. juli. Indtil da skal vi have de sidste småting på plads. Vi prøvekørte hele maskineriet i går, og alt arter sig perfekt til nu. Jeg har fanget sommerens første orange fisk på en brødkrumme i marinaen, og den var hele 9 cm lang.

After an endless journey I have finally arrived in Faial. Here we are getting ready to a big photo shoot for whatever marine creatures we are able to find. For 30 days starting on the 1st of July we have BBC onboard and will for a change not be trolling lures for big blue marlin